Chaos: Ah, I'm updating early because I think lots people were confused about whether I would continue. Flower was only joking!
Flower: Uh...yeeees...
Chaos: (sigh) Well, anyway, there's two more chapters yet. Joy. And this is a nice long one to make up for that really evil cliffie. This cliffie isn't so bad, don't you worry. Sloping towards the end...(sniff) I'll start saying thankyou now. Thanks everybody! (grin)
Kitana - Oh no, I did just do that! Surprised? I surprised myself writing that...(sweatdrop) Anyway, I'll try and continue writing this story well. Even though it's already finished...(whistles innocently)
Strega - Yeah, too bad Flower's ending wasn't used. Mwaha...but I don't think anybody would have liked it. I liked it... Yes, Flower, you wrote it though. Aah, and thankyou for the confidence boost about plot. You're right! My next yugioh story is ok! I SHALL POST IT!!!! Mwahahaha- err, I mean...yes. Thankyou alotalot.
NM - Yes. Sorry. Updating. (sweatdrop)
b.l.w - Yeah, glad you like...twice over. (grin) And it ain't over yet! When it's finished, believe me you will KNOW.
crsq - Of course not! That was a joke! There's two chapters more yet! Come back pleeeeeeeease...
Kitkat - How about schizophrenic? Heh heh. And akura isn't affected until the next story, and then not until a good thirty ages in. (grin) As for Joey...I seem to have missed him. Joey torture time! Hahahahah!
And we wake up in the breakdown,
With the things we never thought we could be.
"Yugi!" Yami cried in sudden alarm as his hikari jerked, then shut his eyes, the cracks suddenly spreading into a deadly net.
"YUGI, NO!" Yami wailed, realising. A brief glance around showed that the room had almost collapsed.
Just as Yugi would any second now.
He bounded into action, lifting Yugi easily. His hikari weighed nothing at all, was stone cold in his arms. He had no heartbeat. Yami gave a whimper of terror and dashed from the room, into his own, the door slamming shut behind them.
…………………………………………………………..
Heart failure.
Heart failure.
Heart failure.
The words bounced around inside Joey's skull as he was ushered away from the bed, doctors and nurses shouting to each other, everybody in a panic. Tea was stumbling beside him, only half awake, not understanding.
"Joey, what's going on?" she asked, slurring slightly, as they were directed to a waiting room.
"It's Yugi, he…had a…" the words stuck in his throat, accompanied by a wave of nausea. With a strangled cry he dashed for the bathroom, making it only just in time.
Tea was suddenly fully awake.
"Yugi!" she yelled back towards the room, "Don't give up!" Then she was in the waiting room, with its plastic orange chairs and tattered magazines, the others around her. Only Solomon had been allowed to stay in the room.
They could only wait, and hope.
………………………………………………….
BAM.
The chargers thudded into Yugi's chest, jolting his body, as the doctors desperately tried to revive him.
BAM.
BAM.
In his soul room, Yami was hugging Yugi tightly, hands spreading light onto the thousands of cracks as he desperately tried to keep Yugi together. It was a losing battle.
Then, with a thud, a burst of light hit Yugi's chest, cracks melting away, and he thought he heard Tea yelling not to give up. Another thud of light…again, again, as the doctors held their breath in the hospital, eyes transfixed on the tiny screen.
And it gave a slow blip.
Then another, stronger.
Solomon, Yami, the doctors, all breathed a sigh of relief.
In Yami's soul room the last cracks melted, and Yugi shuddered painfully in his arms. Then he coughed, shivering, and screwed up his eyes, opened them slowly. They were back to normal.
Yugi was back to normal.
It was only then that Yami finally burst into tears.
In the waiting room Tristan looked up blankly, trying hard not to be optimistic, in case bitter disappointment followed. A doctor approached and smiled. "He'll be fine. His condition's stabilised and he should be awake soon."
It took a moment to sink in. Then they all cheered, Joey swinging Tea round in a mad dance, Tristan high-fiving Duke as they all laughed. The worst was over.
Next day
Tea came to the doorway of Yugi's hospital room, and saw Solomon by the bed. He glanced up briefly, nodded to her and then looked back down to Yugi, a worried frown crossing his features. His concern was immediately obvious; Yugi was asleep, still, but shaking his head from side to side on the pillow, as though trying to escape something, and the Millenium Puzzle was giving odd flashes.
"What's going on?" Tea asked in a hushed voice as she made her way to the empty seat next to Solomon.
"I think he's having a nightmare - he still hasn't woken up. Listen..."
She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear to hear better. Yugi was muttering beneath his breath, barely have lost you...in that fire...no, didn't...Yami!" He started whimpering, and Solomon reached forward to stroke a hand down his cheek, whispering,
"Shh. It's ok, Yugi. Shh..."
Yugi fell silent, back into a deeper, safer sleep. Solomon turned to Tea and asked, "Do you know this Yami? He mentions him a lot...it could just be a dream-vision but...I don't know."
Tea immediately thought of the Millenium Puzzle, and the Pharaoh that lived inside it - or at least she believed lived inside it, as Yugi told her. Yami? It meant darkness...and it made sense.
"No," she lied, "I've never heard of him." Solomon shrugged and turned back to the bed, watching Yugi with a worried expression. Tea uncrossed her fingers behind her back, trying to console herself that Yami was probably fine, and Yugi would wake up soon, once his body had gotten over the shock.
One week later
Yugi felt as though he was waking up from a deep sleep. He opened his eyes and blinked several times, trying to rise from it. The first thing he saw was Joey's face.
"Hey, Yuug! How are you?"
Yugi sat up, feeling suddenly more awake. "I feel...fine." he said in surprise. And it was true; his head felt clearer than it had been in a long time. He smiled at Joey, then suddenly frowned and said,
"Urm...how long has it been? The last thing I remember is..." There was a long pause, as he sorted out the events, "...getting hit by the car." He shuddered slightly at the memory.
"It's been a whole week, Yugi...you were delirious most of the time though. It was a really close thing too! You could have...well, anyway, you're ok now, right?"
"Yeah," Yugi replied brightly, as eager to forget about the accident as Joey. He had only a slight pain in his chest to remind him, and that was easily ignorable - though he doubted it would be the same if he moved around too much.
"I feel fine now...wait, where's the Millenium Puzzle?"
The item was no longer around his neck, and Joey looked a little nervous. Yugi suddenly noticed that he couldn't feel the bond between Yami and himself. There was only a dark hole, and he couldn't even feel the slightest trace of the link; it scared him.
He looked to Joey pleadingly. He could barely remember waking at all in the past week, and when he had he had barely been aware of what was happening, let alone enough to talk to Yami.
Joey took a deep breath.
"Well, y'see, you must have been tossing and turning in your sleep and having a nightmare or something, but anyway...well, we came back on the third day to find it against the far wall. It's broken, I'm afraid."
He held out a shoebox full of shining pieces.